ORCHARD PARK – After speaking mainly in generalities with reporters last week at One Bills Drive, general manager Brandon Beane saved his best line for an appearance on the Bills’ flagship radio station, WGR-AM ( 550) in Buffalo.

Beane was asked how many of the college quarterbacks he had personally seen this past year, and he delivered the money quote that will fuel the next three months leading up to the NFL Draft.

“All of the ones that matter,” Beane said. And by “all of the ones that matter” he was referring to the quarterbacks who are projected to be first-round picks — USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen, Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield and Wyoming’s Josh Allen.

The obvious takeaway for me was that the Bills will try their absolute hardest to pick a quarterback in the first round, and if they don’t, the past nine months have been one of the great draft smokescreens of our time.

Let’s review

In the three months between his January 2017 hiring and the 2017 draft, coach Sean McDermott publicly said all the right things about Tyrod Taylor, including what a great kid and tireless worker he was. But privately, he’d seen the tape of Taylor’s first two seasons with the Bills, and while he knew he had no choice but to play Taylor last year, he also knew he needed a better quarterback starting in 2018. It’s doubtful that opinion changed after what happened during the 2017 season.

So, McDermott began “the process” of rectifying the situation as he sat in the Bills’ war room during the first round in April and made the deal with Kansas City to trade down in exchange for the Chiefs’ first-round slot in 2018. There is no better draft capital than a first-round pick, and now the Bills have two this year, though because both Buffalo and Kansas City made the playoffs, the No. 21 and 22 picks aren’t quite as valuable.

Beane was hired a few days after the draft and in consultation with McDermott, plus his own film study, he reached the same conclusion on Taylor. Great guy, hard worker, obvious skill set, but the Bills need more from their quarterback. Beane began doing his part in “the process” for 2018 by making the August trades that sent Sammy Watkins to the Rams and Ronald Darby to the Eagles and, in part, netted second- and third-round picks.

Tyrod Taylor very likely played his last game for the Bills in the wild-card loss to Jacksonville.(Photo: Mike Ehrmann, Getty Images)

The October trade of Marcell Dareus served three purposes: It brought back a fifth-round pick from Jacksonville; it sent packing a player who was a headache and didn’t fit the new Bills’ culture; and it lopped off millions in future salary commitment, creating room under the cap that could be used to acquire a veteran free agent quarterback this off-season.

Yes, the Bills will need a veteran because even if they pick a quarterback in the first round, they can’t go into the season with Nathan Peterman as the lone backup option. In fact, ideally, the Bills would love to get a veteran who can actually win, because there’s no guarantee the first-round pick will play as a rookie.

He may not be ready by September, or, McDermott may decide to sit him the first year — as Andy Reid did with Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City — so he can watch and learn and be better prepared to take over in 2019.

“We’d like to have a veteran in the room for a lot of reasons, one of which is experience on the field, another of which is leadership, the intangibles that go with some of these veteran players,” said McDermott.

There’s a possibility that Taylor could be retained as that bridge quarterback, but at a price tag of $18 million, and McDermott and Beane knowing what they know of Taylor’s ability, that seems unlikely.

All of that brings us to mid-January, and the official kickoff to the somewhat absurd three-month preamble that culminates with the April 26-28 draft. Saturday is the East-West Shrine Game in St. Petersburg, Florida, and next Saturday is the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, the last opportunities for teams to watch draft-eligible players perform in meaningful practices and live game action.

Kansas City's Alex Smith has been a hot topic in regards to his possibly being acquired by the Bills this offseason.(Photo: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports)

Next is the NFL scouting combine at the end of February where players are measured against their peers in specific on-field drills, but more importantly are put through rigorous medical evaluations, and given the opportunity to meet one-on-one with interested teams.

That is followed by pro days that take place in group settings at the players’ school, and finally, there are private visits in which teams invite players to their complex for daylong workouts and interviews.

At some point, as we all grow tired of Mel Kiper and Todd McShay and the rest of the draft gurus telling us how players are somehow rising and dropping on their draft boards, the Bills’ deep thinkers are going to come to a consensus on which quarterback they will make a play for, and what it will take to ensure his selection.

Who might that be? Right now, it’s impossible to predict.

“It’s so early in the process,” said Beane. “I mean, we’ve seen these college guys on the field, but we’ve yet to meet any of them and to know who they are. You rank these guys (from) what you see on the film, but until you know them and know how they know the game and all of that, talking about the quarterback position, there’s so many layers of what it takes to play quarterback in this league.”

It’s highly unlikely any of the quarterbacks playing in the Shrine game, the lesser of the two postseason all-star games, will be Buffalo’s choice. The group includes J.T. Barrett of Ohio State, Riley Ferguson of Memphis, Quinton Flowers of South Florida, Jeremiah Briscoe of Sam Houston State, Nic Shimonek of Texas Tech and Nick Stevens of Colorado State.

According to NFLDraftScout.com, which is my most trusted draft source, the highest projections for those six is the fifth round for Barrett and Ferguson. The others are pegged as seventh-rounders or undrafted free agents.

Next weekend will be far more interesting as first-rounders Allen and Mayfield are scheduled to play in the Senior Bowl, along with Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph, Western Kentucky’s Mike White and Washington State’s Luke Falk. NFLDraftScout.com projects Rudolph as a second-rounder, White in the third, and Falk in the fourth.

Darnold and Rosen, who are expected to be the first two players selected by the Browns and Giants, and Louisville’s Lamar Jackson (who has a low first-round, high second-round grade) are not eligible as underclassmen to play in either of the all-star games.

Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield is a quarterback the Bills may have a shot at drafting in the first round.(Photo: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)

Darnold and Rosen may be out of the Bills’ range for two reasons: The Browns and Giants need quarterbacks, so they aren’t trading those top two picks. And, even if they would consider it, the price the Bills would have to pay would be exorbitant.

Thus, Allen and Mayfield are Buffalo’s first-round realities, but here’s the problem. The Broncos (fifth pick) and Jets (sixth) both need quarterbacks, too, and it’s possible the Bengals (12th), Redskins (13th) and Cardinals (15th) are in the market as well.

Sitting at 21st and 22nd, the Bills aren’t getting any of the top four without a trade, and the only way it would be possible to assure themselves of getting one of those players is to cut a deal with the Browns, who also own the fourth overall pick. Indy is picking third and does not need a quarterback.

USC quarterback Sam Darnold is projected to be one of the top two picks in April's NFL draft.(Photo: Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports)

Assuming the Browns pick Darnold or Rosen at No. 1, they might be interested in the trade package the Bills could offer for the fourth pick. And, as we all know, this has happened before. In 2014, the Browns also had the fourth pick and they swapped places with Buffalo at No. 9, plus received the Bills’ first- and fourth-round spots in the 2015 draft, so that the Bills could select Watkins.

The difference this time is the Browns wouldn’t receive a top 10 pick in return for trading down, so it will take more of the Bills’ capital to entice them. Based on the Jimmy Johnson-devised draft chart, which assigns point values to every draft slot, the Bills would have to at least part with both first-rounders at Nos. 21 and 22, and their second-round pick to make the deal equitable.

It’s a steep price, but if the Bills are 100 percent convinced that Allen or Mayfield is their franchise quarterback, it would be worth it to make sure they jump ahead of the Broncos and Jets.

“The good thing is we have a lot of draft capital,” said Beane. “It’s too early for me to answer what we would do, whether we’d do it or not, but yes, we will go where we need to go to get the right players.”